The Automatic Re-buy Fallacy

Some people love to eat the same thing regularly.  I believe my mother has been eating the same cereal every morning for years now.  I just don’t work that way; I go through food phases.  I got accused of “pregnant cravings” multiple times while I was pregnant because I wanted something that I didn’t regularly eat.  But that’s just the way I normally eat.  I get tired of the same thing every day and want something new, or better yet, something I haven’t had in a while.

A few months ago I got some Golden Grahams.  I loved them as a child.  It took me a while to finish the box because they’re great, but I didn’t have a craving for a full box.  When I’d finally finished the box and freed up the space on the cereal shelf, a new box magically appeared.  My husband was being nice and getting me more.  But my craving had ended about two months before.  So now I’m working on the second box.

I’ve been eating oatmeal recently as I was advised it would help in milk production.  You can never have too much milk.  Last baby, I had too little milk, so I heeded the lactation consultant’s advice on the oatmeal.  But I am so over oatmeal.  Two days ago my husband went to Costco and did what we all are guilty of --got swept up in a large quantity for a great price situation.  He came home with fifty more oatmeal packets.  Ugh.  So now, my son is getting oatmeal for breakfast.  I’ll never make it through that many without help.

Some people love the regularity of the same food items.  I love variety.  To each his own.  After several other re-buy incidents like the ones above I've put my husband on a strict “no re-buy unless it’s on the grocery list” plan.  To be fair, I know he’s thinking of me and getting me something he knows I like.  But when he comes home from the store, I have the hardest time being both excited and grateful when I’m thinking inside “I didn’t want to see that item again for two years.”  He’s the best though and took my no re-buy request without being offended or upset.

The Big Boy Update:  We may have finally found shoes that fit.  He’s got fat, short-ish feet.  Shoes either won’t fit over the thick part of his feet or they’re too long and he can’t walk well.  Or, they’re not rubberized on the bottom and he slips all around as he runs around the house.  Today we found a pair that looked perfect, were the right size, had rubber soles and were reasonable in price.  But they were the demo model.  Fortunately, the demo model was on sale.  They look like little biker shoes, but they have great traction and he seems to like them.  He looks cute toddling around in them too.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  It’s hard to know how much she’s eating when she nurses.  To start the nighttime meal reduction/elimination she needs to be eating at least 24 ounces per day.  Yesterday I pumped all day so we could measure her intake and it turns out she was several ounces under.  Today we tried again and she’s over 24 ounces.  As long as we work on her eating a good amount during the day, it looks like we’re a go for Baby Boot Camp.  We also relocated her yesterday and today to her room instead of in the bassinet in our room.  She seems to really like the mobile that glows and plays music in her crib.